20,000 hours spent on Dotcom cases

More than 20,000 hours have been clocked up by Crown lawyers working on cases related to Kim Dotcom. Photo / NZ Herald

More than 20,000 hours have been clocked up by Crown lawyers working on Kim Dotcom cases, it has been reported.

The figure is estimated to be the equivalent of around $6 million in legal fees if the work had been carried out by a private firm, according to Radio New Zealand, which obtained the details under the Official Information Act.

It includes around 1400 hours of work undertaken by several private lawyers on behalf of the Crown, at a cost of nearly $400,000. The figures, obtained from Crown Law, also revealed nearly $70,000 had been spent on travel and accommodation related to numerous court hearings.

The information dates back to January 2012, when the internet mogul was arrested during a raid at his Coatesville mansion.

Since then Dotcom has been fighting attempts to extradite him to the United States, where he faces charges of piracy, money laundering and racketeering.

Almost 190 court hours have been spent on the Dotcom proceedings so far - the equivalent of 54 ordinary sitting days.

A Crown Law spokeswoman told RNZ it was important to remember that the Dotcom proceedings were not just one court case but several related cases.

It was not the first case of this magnitude, she said, with similar amounts of time being spent on the Ahmed Zaoui case and the David Bain Privy Council appeal and re-trial.

Meanwhile, a report into police handling of the Dotcom spying allegations is due to be released by the Independent Police Conduct Authority today.

It follows a complaint laid by Green Party co-leader Russel Norman last year in relation to how police dealt with his complaint about surveillance of the German millionaire.